Wuhan Lab’s ‘Bat Lady’ Visited Fauci, NIH in 2017, Emails Reveal

Scientists at the center of the “lab leak” controversy visited Dr. Anthony Fauci’s institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2017 to discuss their research — just months before NIH lifted a pause on high-risk virology, and two years before a novel coronavirus emerged near their lab in Wuhan.

Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) Senior Scientist Shi Zhengli passed a security screening to visit National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) staffers in June 2017, where she gave a presentation about novel coronaviruses, emails obtained by U.S. Right to Know show.

Shi is known internationally as the “Bat Lady” for her work with bats and their coronaviruses. Though ostensibly a civilian lab, the WIV has conducted research projects “for defensive and biosecurity needs of the military” since at least 2017, according to U.S. intelligence.